by Mia Archer
The threat couldn’t be more clear. If I wanted the rest of my stay here to be a pleasant one then I wasn’t going to say a damn thing that could incriminate anyone in the room.
“So will you let me take you as a client?” Dan asked.
I shrugged. “Sure. Guess I’ve got nothing to lose.”
“Right. So could you please tell me what happened between you and officer Jenkins the night before at the factory?” Dan asked.
I looked up sharply. Looked to Mari who was blushing and looking away. She told him. She had to have told him what happened. That was the whole reason we were having this meeting right now. That was the reason the Chief was down here.
That’s what he was talking about when he said he’d pulled the Chief away from his day off. Damn.
And yet there was still Jenkins glaring at me. There was the clear threat that something bad was going to happen if I opened my big mouth, and that put me in much less of a mood to open that big mouth.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.
“Robin,” Dan said. “You can trust me on this. You’re not in trouble. You haven’t been charged with anything, and as far as I can tell they don’t have any evidence to charge you with anything.”
He paused and shot a glare of his own at Jenkins and the other guy. They looked down and for a moment they seemed for all the world like a couple of toddlers who’d been caught doing something wrong and now they were being called to task for it.
It was interesting seeing cops reacting like that. I never thought I’d see something like that in my life, and yet here we were.
“In fact I’m not sure why they brought you in here in the first place,” he said, emphasizing every word.
“Look, if you have something then let us know Dan,” the Chief said. “Otherwise I need to get back to my golf game. I’m humoring you here, but…”
Dan held a hand up and the Chief shut up. The lawyer had a smile on his face. Like he was relishing every moment of this. I realized he was having a good time. He knew he was about to pull something over on them and he knew it was going to be big.
“Harold, the point is your people here brought my client in without any reason. They rounded up everyone else at the party then dispersed them, so why bring Robin here in? Is that fair?”
“I’m sure the officers have a good reason,” the Chief said.
He turned his glare on Jenkins and her friend, but neither one of them said anything. They sank lower in their chairs under that disapproving glare and for the first time since this started I could feel the mood in the room shifting. I felt like maybe this wasn’t going to end with me back in a cell under Jenkins’ watchful eye.
“If they’re not going to tell you what happened then maybe I could fill in the blanks,” Dan said.
He looked over to Mari. Her hand was on the table and she suddenly looked like she was afraid of something. As well she should be. After all, she was there last night too. She was the one the younger cop had chased through the woods.
Telling them what had happened out there last night was as good as telling them she’d been out there. It was as good as turning herself in.
“Your people chased Robin and another witness around the back of the factory and caught Robin. Then while they had her in custody officer Jenkins here used unnecessary force to apprehend her. She seemed to take pleasure in it,” he said.
Chief Harold leaned forward, the frown on his face turning into a glower. “Those are very serious accusations. Are you going to tell us who this witness is?”
The Chief glanced to Mari and she blushed and turned away. Obviously she wasn’t used to being under scrutiny from the cops. I could identify with that. It wasn’t a fun place to be.
It was also pretty obvious that the Chief knew who this witness was, but he wasn’t going to say anything. He might be glowering, he might not like what he’d just heard, but there was also a twinkle in his eye that said he knew what the score was.
The guy wasn’t an idiot, that was for sure.
“I don’t see any need for the witness to come forward at this time,” Dan said. “The point is your officers were caught, and they need to fess up to it and you need to let Robin go. We can talk about potential lawsuits later.”
The Chief turned back to Jenkins and her coworker. The glower was back and there was no twinkle in his eye this time around. It was pretty obvious the old man was pissed off. I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that kind of look.
“What do you have to say for yourselves?” he groused.
“What do I have to say for myself?” Jenkins said after a long moment looking between me and the lawyer on the other end of the table. “I have to say this is all bullshit. This guy doesn’t have anything and he’s fishing. He doesn’t have anything because nothing like that happened, right?”
She turned to look at me for confirmation and I looked away. Under that gaze I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. I hated her, but more than anything I hated myself for keeping quiet. I also knew I wasn’t going to say anything because there was a chance this was all a bluff.
I still remembered how much it hurt last night when she hit me. Tripped me. Laughed as I fell on my ass. I still remembered it and I didn’t want a repeat performance of last night after Mari and her dad left so I was keeping my fucking mouth shut.
Only it didn’t look like Mari’s dad was done. Not by a long shot. He shook his head and he looked like he was really sad about Jenkins’ answer, but there was something else there.
A slight smile. Like he’d expected her to say something like that. Almost like he was hoping she’d say something like that.
“That’s too bad officer Jenkins,” he said. “Because I don’t need a witness to come forward. Mari?”
He turned to Mari and she looked down. Blushed. Then she looked across the table to me and there was something about her expression that hardened.
In that moment she looked a lot like her dad. She looked like the kind of person who wasn’t going to take any shit from anyone. The sort of person I had to be when someone was getting a little tough in a business deal.
Like when old Spock threatened to turn us into the authorities.
Mari stared at me as she fished something out of her pocket. Placed it on the table in front of her.
A phone.
20
Mari
I was scared out of my mind. I couldn’t believe I was sitting here in the middle of the police station in the middle of an interrogation.
Sure I’d been here plenty of times before. My dad was a lawyer. He was friends with a lot of the cops. That meant I was used to this place. Used to seeing people in uniform.
Alway before I’d felt safe here. I knew there was nothing to be afraid of because I hadn’t done anything wrong.
After last night I knew what bullshit that was. I mean sure I’d snuck into a factory that was technically probably owned by someone so it was probably technically trespassing. I’d done some things that were probably technically less than legal.
But still. They didn’t know that when they ran me and Robin down. They didn’t know that when they did everything they’d done to her.
I was the only person who could save her. She’d saved me, and now it was my turn to do the same with her.
The Robin I saw on the other side of that table broke my heart. There were some bruises on her face where she fell the night before. I wondered what excuse they made up about that.
Well whatever excuse it was, they were about to get a rude awakening. I held her gaze as I pushed my phone out to my dad.
Sure I was possibly incriminating myself, but dad had explained that there really wasn’t a good way for them to know who was doing the filming as long as I kept my mouth shut. So that’s exactly what I did.
Even though I wanted more than anything to go to the other side of the table and hug Robin close to me. Let her know that everything was going to be okay. That I w
as going to make this better.
I wasn’t sure how reassuring my smile or that look was, but I hoped it communicated something of the love I felt to her. I hoped it gave her some strength, because it looked like she needed my strength this morning as much as I’d needed her strength the night before when we did what we did.
“Right,” dad said. “I hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but we have your officer refusing to fess up Chief.”
The Chief rolled his eyes. “Get on with it, would you? I can still get to my golf game if we hurry this up.”
“Right,” dad said.
He opened up the photo gallery on my phone and I was thankful I didn’t have anything too embarrassing on there. Just some pictures of me making goofy faces.
I was also thankful I hadn’t taken a selfie with Robin the night before. It would’ve made things really awkward if dad opened up the photo app after saying he wanted his witness to remain anonymous and there were pictures of me and Robin together complete with a nice digital timestamp showing the world exactly when we’d been together.
But no. I’d been so distracted by everything else that happened last night that selfies had been the last thing on my mind. And so the only thing on there from last night was the video.
Dad hit play and it moved to full screen.
It was difficult to make people out at first, but then the low light filter on my phone kicked in and things came into relief just a bit. I still couldn’t make out who was who, not exactly, but there were indistinct blobs and the voices sounded like people in this room.
A room that was absolutely silent as the video played all the way through. As the Chief watched Jenkins tossing Robin to the ground a couple of times and taunting her. I winced watching the video.
It wasn’t pleasant to witness the first time around, and it certainly wasn’t fun to watch again. I’d only seen it once last night when I was showing dad and that had been more than enough for me thank you very much.
When the video was done dad turned to look at the Chief again. The old man was silent for a long moment as he stared down at my phone.
“Well then,” he said. “I suppose you’ll have a copy of this for me?”
“Sure do,” dad said, pulling out a thumb drive and sliding it across the table.
“Right,” the Chief said. “Jenkins, you’re on unpaid administrative leave starting now while we investigate this. Same for your partner here.”
He turned to Robin and smiled. It was a genuinely warm smile and seemed to be filled with regret. Not that it was probably going to stop the inevitable lawsuit my dad had been talking about on the ride over here, but it was a start at least.
“And let me be the first to apologize to you on behalf of the department,” he said. “I’m afraid that some of my people can get a little overzealous sometimes.”
He glanced at Jenkins and her partner again. Both of them were examining the table as though they were very interested in the faux-wood pattern on the plastic top. If I were them and I’d just been caught lying to my boss like that I’d be doing the same damn thing.
“I’d also think that my people would know better than to go after someone whose only crime is dealing a little pot when there are so many other real problems to deal with, but I guess that didn’t get communicated clearly enough.”
He winked and touched a finger to his nose. “Of course that’s just between the two of us. I wouldn’t want someone who hypothetically did that sort of thing to keep her family afloat to start making stupid decisions. It might be going legal around the country, but this state will probably be one of the last to do that.”
I stared at the Chief in disbelief. Robin did the same. He knew what she’d been up to. He knew what she’d been up to and he didn’t care. Dad was chuckling and shaking his head too.
“You look surprised Robin,” the Chief said. “I might be old, but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid. I know my town. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a golf game to get to. You’re free to go.”
“But Chief!” Jenkins finally exploded, as though it had been too much for her to keep her thoughts to herself all this time. “We have her at that party and I know that…”
“I know that you detained her when you didn’t detain anyone else and you also used excessive force. We’re going to be a long time dealing with this, and I’m sure Dan is going to make us pay for your mistakes,” he said. “Now get out of here. I don’t want to see either of you until the full investigation is done, and don’t for a moment think that investigation is going to go well for either of you.”
Jenkins and her buddy stood and filed out of the room. I could almost feel bad for the other cop. He looked young. Like he was brand new to the force. Probably at the start of his career and now it was going to be derailed by this.
Not that I felt too sorry for him for too long. After all, he had stood there and let Jenkins do what she did. That meant he didn’t deserve all that much sympathy as far as I was concerned.
“So that’s it?” Robin asked. “I’m free to go? Just like that?”
“Just like that,” the Chief said. “And I really do apologize, though I have a feeling we’re going to pay for this.”
He shrugged. It was a surprisingly fatalistic shrug for a man who was facing down a small town scandal and probably a lawsuit that was going to cost the city a pretty penny in insurance premiums when dad was done with them.
“Sometimes you get some bad apples, but I’m not going to defend them. What they did was wrong, and for that I’m sorry.”
With that the Chief left the room leaving us alone with my dad. He looked down at the phone for a moment then back to me. He put his arm around me and pulled me in close.
“I’m proud of you kid,” he said. “You did everything right there. You got your recording and you kept your mouth shut when you were supposed to. We might make a lawyer of you yet!”
“Yeah, maybe,” I said, thinking that maybe going into dad’s profession wouldn’t be all that bad after all. I had a practice waiting for me if I wanted it, and on top of that I just got a really good idea of the kind of power a lawyer could wield in a small town like this.
Maybe coming back to the small town and helping out wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Of course I still had a few years at college to figure all that out. Better to get there and start classes and figure out what I wanted to do first.
“Thanks for your help,” Robin said. “I was starting to think they were going to keep me in there forever.”
Dad grinned and stood. Walked around the table and held a hand out. Robin eyed his hand warily for a moment before reaching out to shake it, only the moment he took her hand he also pulled her up and into a hug that seemed to surprise her.
“And thank you for finally drawing my little girl out of her shell,” he said.
“Um, what?” she asked when the hug was done.
“Yeah, what are you talking about?” I asked.
Dad laughed and looked between the two of us. “I’ll tell you two the same thing the Chief just told you. I might be older, but that doesn’t mean I’m an idiot. I’ve known how you felt about girls for awhile, even if you didn’t know it yourself. I’m just glad you finally found someone.”
I stared at dad for a long moment, dumbfounded. Was he serious? Had he really known all this time? I thought I was so good about covering it up. I thought for the longest time that it was something I’d kept to myself.
I guess I hadn’t been as good about covering things up as I thought. Oops.
“Of course it’s going to take some getting used to with your mom,” he said. “She saw the same things I did, but she’s still sort of in denial about it.”
I rolled my eyes. “Still in denial after I came out and told her I was dating a girl last night?”
“You told her that?” Robin asked. “You seriously told your parents?”
She looked like she wasn’t sure if she should be surprised or terrified or maybe a little bit
of all of the above. And as she looked at us with that mix of emotions I felt sorry for her.
I hadn’t met her parents. Or I guess it would be more fair to say I hadn’t met her parent. After all, her mom was out of the picture. Everyone at school knew about that even if everyone had the good sense not to say anything about it.
She obviously didn’t have the kind of relationship with her dad that I had with my dad though. Something told me she’d never come clean about being interested in girls. I wondered if she ever would, but that was something to worry about later.
“What can I say?” my dad said. “We don’t have many secrets from each other.”
He looked between the two of us and grinned. “I’m going to step outside for a few minutes, but if the two of you want we can head down to the Chinese place on the square when we get done here. Sound good?”
“Yeah, sounds great,” I said.
“Um, sure,” Robin said, still looking like she wasn’t quite sure how to react to all of this.
Dad got up and stepped out of the room. Leaving me all alone with Robin. The awkwardness could’ve been cut with a knife or something.
Then she looked up at me. Smiled. And when she smiled all the worry melted away and I knew we were going to be okay. She laughed just a little.
“I can’t believe that just happened,” she said.
“Yeah, me either,” I replied. “I’m really glad I took that video.”
“Hey, you might not want to advertise that too much,” she said, looking around.
I looked around too, but it’s not like they had cameras or anything in here. Still, she was probably right. Better to keep quiet and not get in trouble.
“So you want to go get some food with my dad? You were going to have to meet him eventually,” I said.
Robin looked down and I felt like everything that had been going so right today was starting to go wrong again. She looked uncertain. Worry clutched at my heart and I wondered what I’d done wrong.
